Alphabets and Scripts

What the page covers

Most of the page is about Japanese kana. You will find several Hiragana flashcard decks, a Katakana deck, and word lists such as Body parts in Japanese Hiragana and Japanese Food - Hiragana. The Hiragana deck pairs each character with its romanised sound, so you can check yourself as you go.

Other scripts are here too. There are decks for the Lao alphabet, Cherokee Syllabary, Hebrew Alphabet, Arabic Alphabet, Korean Alphabet and the GEORGIAN LANGUAGE ALPHABET, which links each letter to an example word such as avokado or banani.

Where to start

Choose one script and begin with its flashcards. For Japanese, work through the Hiragana deck first, then move to Katakana. Once the characters feel familiar, try the word decks, which show the letters in use.

1. Learn a small set of characters on flashcards.
2. Take a quiz on the same set.
3. Return to the cards you missed.

Using quizzes and mind maps together

The JLPT N5 Hiragana Test asks you to fill in missing kana in words like aka and ari. The first Hiragana reading exercise asks you to write words in rōmaji exactly as they appear in hiragana, even when the reading differs. That is useful practice for spelling what you see.

For the bigger picture, the mind maps The Formation of Chinese Characters and Understanding Chinese Characters show how characters are built. There are also maps called Korean Language and arabic writing tips. Read a map first, then test yourself with a quiz such as the hieroglyphic sign quiz, which covers ideograms, determinatives and phonograms.

Where this sits

This unit belongs to the Writing Systems and Pronunciation strand of the Other languages subject. It suits school students learning to read a new script and teachers looking for ready-made drills.

Make it your own

If a script you need is thin here, make your own deck or quiz from the cards you find hardest. Open a quiz today and see which characters stick.